County ranking
Best places to live in Lancashire
30 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
This ranking covers the 60 Lancashire towns above 3,000 people that we can score in at least 8 of 9 categories, with the best 30 listed. Four towns tie at the top on 67/100: Euxton, Fulwood, Ormskirk and Whittle-le-Woods. Five towns clear 65/100, a mark roughly one in eight UK towns this size reaches: Euxton (67), Fulwood (67) and Ormskirk (67), among others.
Fulwood is the cheapest way into the top five, with a median house price of £215,000 against £328,500 in Whittle-le-Woods. From top to bottom of this table there are 13 points: 67 at the head, 54 at the foot. See the detailed scores for Euxton, Fulwood and Ormskirk.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Euxton | 67 | Healthcare 67 Transport 60 | 7,970 | £220,000 |
| 2 | Fulwood | 67 | Healthcare 79 Schools 75 | 33,789 | £215,000 |
| 3 | Ormskirk | 67 | Healthcare 66 Lifestyle 64 | 26,567 | £285,000 |
| 4 | Whittle-le-Woods | 67 | Healthcare 55 Transport 53 | 3,186 | £328,500 |
| 5 | Penwortham | 66 | Healthcare 71 Schools 75 | 18,682 | £230,750 |
| 6 | Blackburn (Blackburn with Darwen) | 64 | Healthcare 84 Transport 85 | 123,950 | £160,125 |
| 7 | Clitheroe | 63 | Healthcare 65 Lifestyle 60 | 17,471 | £230,000 |
| 8 | Brierfield | 62 | Healthcare 75 Schools 78 | 11,479 | £152,500 |
| 9 | Chorley | 62 | Schools 78 Lifestyle 75 | 32,766 | £185,000 |
| 10 | Nelson (Pendle) | 61 | Schools 82 Healthcare 75 | 33,284 | £99,950 |
| 11 | Bamber Bridge | 60 | Transport 66 Healthcare 61 | 40,353 | £195,000 |
| 12 | Barrowford | 60 | Healthcare 63 Schools 66 | 5,895 | £177,500 |
| 13 | Burnley | 60 | Healthcare 76 Schools 77 | 78,516 | £133,000 |
| 14 | Church | 60 | Healthcare 77 Transport 75 | 5,246 | £125,000 |
| 15 | Preston (Preston) | 60 | Healthcare 82 Transport 79 | 96,559 | £146,500 |
| 16 | Rishton | 60 | Healthcare 72 Schools 70 | 6,107 | £120,000 |
| 17 | Barnoldswick | 59 | Healthcare 67 Broadband 96 | 10,127 | £150,000 |
| 18 | Leyland | 59 | Schools 69 Transport 65 | 33,812 | £212,000 |
| 19 | Adlington (Chorley) | 58 | Healthcare 51 Transport 52 | 8,392 | £218,000 |
| 20 | Burscough | 58 | Healthcare 65 Broadband 94 | 9,169 | £245,125 |
| 21 | Lancaster | 58 | Lifestyle 91 Transport 72 | 50,921 | £180,000 |
| 22 | Oswaldtwistle | 58 | Schools 75 Healthcare 66 | 11,192 | £155,000 |
| 23 | Coppull | 57 | Lifestyle 53 Schools 53 | 7,380 | £185,000 |
| 24 | Darwen | 57 | Transport 75 Healthcare 64 | 27,493 | £147,500 |
| 25 | Thornton (Wyre) | 56 | Healthcare 66 Schools 62 | 19,492 | £182,250 |
| 26 | Accrington | 55 | Healthcare 72 Transport 70 | 31,351 | £132,000 |
| 27 | Bolton-le-Sands | 55 | Lifestyle 62 Broadband 87 | 6,423 | £320,000 |
| 28 | Clayton-le-Moors | 55 | Healthcare 59 Transport 59 | 7,569 | £150,000 |
| 29 | Carleton | 54 | Schools 68 Healthcare 62 | 4,675 | £240,000 |
| 30 | Carnforth | 54 | Broadband 92 Schools 43 | 5,858 | £170,500 |
Ranked on the default weighting, out of 100. Strongest categories are the two furthest above the national median for that category, not simply the two highest numbers. Almost every town scores well on safety, so raw highs would say little.
Find your own best place in Lancashire
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 60 qualifying towns around what you actually care about — who's moving, a minimum on one category, a price ceiling for the type of home you'd buy.
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How this ranking was built
Every settlement in Lancashire was scored across 9 categories (safety, schools, healthcare, transport, environment, broadband, lifestyle, economic health and bills) from official sources including Police UK, Ofsted, the CQC, Ofcom, the Environment Agency and MHCLG. Two filters then decide who appears here:
- Population above 3,000. Without a floor the list fills with hamlets of a few dozen people. Lancashire has 60 towns above it.
- Real data in at least 8 of 9 categories. Places we can only partly measure are excluded rather than ranked on guesswork.
Counties are ceremonial, and a town belongs to the county its postcodes physically sit in, so border towns land where residents would expect them to.
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